Ooooh, witchy women. As loathe as I am to be quoting the Eagles,
the phrase comes to mind when listening to this underrated Montreal chanteuse,
who takes her place alongside a new wave of wonderfully weird Canadian ladies:
Austra, Lydia Ainsworth, Lisa Conway of Del Bel, Louise Burns, Alana Yorke, et
al. All have classically trained voices (or at least sound like they do), all
specialize in minor keys and more than a bit of morbidity, all make autumnal
melancholy.

Leclerc has zero profile in the anglosphere, but she sold 10,000
copies of her debut album in Quebec and France; it was produced by French
singer Emily Loizeau, which helped its profile. Leclerc started performing as a
teen, and is a graduate of something called the École nationale de la chanson (yet
another Quebec cultural institution the rest of Canada can envy), which
explains her gift for melody. What’s even more striking here is her
arrangements, which might feature just a brass section, fuzzed out bass and
tumbling drums, or a full rock band, or Omnichord and electric guitar. Every
production decision here sounds deliberate and meticulous; nothing is left to
chance. On top of it all, Leclerc’s voice conveys layers of meaning even if you
don’t understand a word of French.

Is this the most underrated Canadian record of the last 12
months? (June 18)

Download: “Arion,” “L’icone du naufrage,” “Attendre la fin”

Lemon Bucket Orkestra – Moorka (Fedora Upside Down)

This year, Toronto’s Lemon Bucket Orkestra celebrate their fifth
anniversary as a band. They arrived several years after Eastern European sounds
started to creep into the mainstream, with bands like Beirut and Gogol Bordello
selling out huge shows across the continent (this continent, that is, but
Europe as well). In the wake of those acts came a lot of dabblers, who
threatened to turn this music into a watered-down trend like Celtic and ska
before it. Lemon Bucket, however—many of whom are of Eastern European descent,
though they’re a multicultural band—were never dabblers.

On their second full-length album, recorded in a barn near
Waterloo, the Orkestra interpret songs they learned from the source: from
musicians they met while touring Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania. Lemon
Bucket built their reputation as a live act with irrepressible energy; on
record, you appreciate much more their skills as players and arrangers: there
are three violinists, including bandleader Mark Marczyk; five brass players;
two wind players; three percussionists, an accordionist and a guitarist. And
yet they play as one incredibly tight unit, through convoluted time signatures
and breakneck speeds.

No wonder, of course: these guys play all the time, in concert
halls, in street festivals, on random corners, even on Air Canada flights (a
YouTube clip of this went viral in 2012). Their tireless dedication to both
their craft and the heritage of this music comes through in every note here—but
even more important, it’s a really good time. (June 25)

Download: “Prescacanka,” “Kolomyjka,” “Mar Domenesc”

Merna – The Calling (W.A.R. Media)

This Toronto singer’s debut album under this name (she used to
record as Ayah) finds her full of swagger and soul: she comes out swinging
right off the top, with the bold “Young & Reckless,” and maintains that
intensity for another nine tracks. Executive produced by Ali Shaheed Muhammad
of A Tribe Called Quest, Merna has the range and power of a Mary J. Blige or
Melanie Fiona, with the forward-thinking production acumen of Zaki Ibrahim or
Santigold. Lots of strings (or synth strings) provide plenty of oomph, pushing
Merna into Shirley Bassey territory at times (“Games We Play”). This came out
last November; Canada shouldn’t be sleeping on this record any longer. (June 18)

One of the most influential producers in pop history returns
from retirement after 30 years, a few years after two of his biggest fans, the
French duo Daft Punk, won a Grammy for Album of the Year by imitating some of
Moroder’s greatest hits—and setting an autobiographical ramble by the man
himself to music in a track named after him.

For 10 years in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Moroder had a
massive stream of hits for David Bowie (“Cat People”), Blondie (“Call Me”),
Irene Cara (“Flashdance”), Berlin (“Take My Breath Away”) and more. He sold
millions of records for Donna Summer by bringing electronic music into disco,
and is considered the godfather of techno for making minimalist hits like “I
Feel Love.”

But Moroder was first and foremost a pop producer. So even if
Daft Punk restored his reputation, those expecting him to bust open a new genre
or do something experimental are going to be disappointed in Déjà Vu, which is
tailor-made for the EDM generation. He’s not wiring up all his analog synths
again; he’s making big shiny tunes for today. As the man himself says, to quote
the title of an instrumental track here, 74 is the new 24.

And so he teams up with a team of young vocalists—Charlie XCX,
Mikky Ekko, Foxes and Matthew Koma (the latter two have had hits with Russian
house DJ Zedd)—and veritable grandmother Kylie Minogue. On one of the worst
matchings of producer and singer and song in recent memory, Moroder employs
Britney Spears to sing Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”—the less said about which,
the better. But Sia soars, naturally, on the title track, and Foxes fares well
on “Wildstar.”

It all adds up as more of an homage not to Moroder’s past
catalogue as much as his own influence on modern sounds in Ibiza. This is not
for geeky crate-diggers and Mojo magazine readers; this old man wants to make
records for kids of the 21st century. Just like he always did. (June
18)

Song of the summer? The last couple of years the continent’s
critics have fretted endlessly about this dubious designation, as if it conveys
some vital importance about how we’ll look back on this period of time in pop
music history. And so what if it was Iggy Azalea in 2014?

For what it’s worth, I’ll nominate the lead track on the second
EP by this London singer, “Inhale Exhale.” Its mid-tempo, ascending bass line
of five eighth notes makes for a fantastic funk riff, the kind that wouldn’t
sound out of place on an Erykah Badu or Janet Jackson or Beck record, while
Nao’s deceptively girly voice demonstrates true grit.

Follow-up track “Zillionaire” could easily have been just as strong,
if not for a cloying chorus that’s just as annoying as Travis McCoy and Bruno
Mars’s not dissimilar “Billionaire.” “Apple Cherry” sounds like Grimes doing
’90s R&B, while “Golden” is the kind of single Beyoncé might make if she
tried on some subtlety for a change.

Nao hasn’t arrived with a lot of hype: she’s put out her EPs on
her own label, her only real claim to fame is singing backup vocals with Pulp
once, and she contributes to a track on the new Disclosure album. Her music
does all the talking. (June 4)

Download: “Inhale Exhale,” “Apple Cherry,” “Golden”

Nozinja – Nozinja Lodge (Warp/Maple)

For the last 40 years, Western ears have usually recoiled from
the tinny synths that dominate music from afar, be it Asia, the Middle East or
Africa. Syrian singer Omar Souleyman, who collaborates with Bjork and FourTet,
helped to change that perception, and now we have South Africa’s Nozinja, the
pioneer of the Shangaan electro sound.

What is Shangaan? Sometimes it sounds like the preset demo on a
Casio keyboard played at three times the speed. Sometimes it sounds like a deft
electro adaptation of township jive or mbaqanga, with marimbas melding with
syncopated synth stabs, traditional vocals and 180-bpm electronic rhythms.

Nozinja is Richard Mthetwa, who assembled a Shangaan compilation
for Damon Albarn’s label, Honest Jon’s, a few years back. That led to some
tracks for a label run by Caribou’s Dan Snaith. Here the attention is solely on
his own work and the evolution of Shangaan; Mthetwa brings in elements of
dancehall reggae, ’90s jungle, Latin beats, and filters it all through his
unique vision. On “Xihukwani,” he recreates the bass line from New Order’s “Blue
Monday” and throws it into a swirling symphony of staccato synths and tumbling
drum machines.

Ah, but can you dance to it? They do in Limpopo, apparently, and
can do so for up to an hour—a frenetic pace that seems impossible to maintain.
The rest of us will probably listen and grin and vibrate with excitement. (June 11)

Download: “Nwa Baloyi,” “Baby Do U Feel Me,” “Xihukwani”

Socalled – Peoplewatching (Dare to Care)

“I’m neither fish nor fowl,” says Josh Dolgin, a.k.a. Socalled,
in an interview recently. He’s an Anglo Jew living in Montreal who loves
klezmer, hip-hop, country, Latin music and jazz—ideally all at the same time.
He’s too strange for the mainstream—where his soundtracks to puppet shows and
gay porn raise eyebrow—and he’s too nerdy for the cool kids.

Yet he’s a hometown hero in Montreal, because his music wouldn’t
be out of place at any one of the city’s summer music festivals. He tours
France regularly. He attracts collaborators such as James Brown sideman Fred
Wesley and jazz legend Oliver Jones. He provided the theme for the popular
Canadaland podcast. And he got the once-in-a-generation gig overhauling the
theme to CBC Radio’s As It Happens, Moe Kaufman’s “Curried Soul”; Socalled’s “Curried
Soul 2.0” closes out this new record.

If his radio themes provide a gateway into Dolgin’s demented
world, then Peoplewatching is as good a place as any to dive in deep (although
2011’s Sleepover is his strongest record). “Everyone Else Must Fail” (its title
borrowed from Genghis Khan) features his longtime lead vocalist, Katie Moore,
and embodies everything Socalled does well: minor-key melody, hip-hop beat,
country vocals and dorky rapping (he rhymes Punky Brewster with Wayne and
Shuster). “Bootycalling” is enjoyably ridiculous.

The surprise, however, is the earnest and touching portrait of
his Mile End neighbourhood, “Fire on Hutchison Street.” It’s also the only
track where Dolgin plays unaccompanied; ironic, then, that the great
collaborator is most effective all on his lonesome. (June 11)

What does the third member of The XX, the one who isn’t singing
or playing guitar or bass, do exactly? Jaime XX is not a DJ—outside of clubs,
anyway. He’s partially an electronic percussionist, playing live MPC. He’s
remixed Radiohead, Adele, FourTet and Gil Scott-Heron. He did the title track
from Drake’s Take Care, featuring Rihanna. Here, he steps to the front to make
a solo record that doesn’t sound that far removed from The XX—in part because
his bandmates Romy Madley-Croft and Oliver Sim (sounding more and more like
Tindersticks’ Stuart Staples) appear on three tracks—but with more
four-on-the-floor action and some blissed-out ecstasy letting some light into
the austere British melancholy.

In Colour is a fine debut, but owes so much to FourTet, Boards
of Canada and other ’90s survivors whose new records are largely ignored or
taken for granted, while Jamie XX racks up dozens of cover stories and glowing
reviews. Seriously, if Moby put out this record—and he could—would anyone care?
I’d like to put that to a test in a blind listening party.

Meanwhile, The XX is working on their third album, expected
later this year. It probably won’t feature guest spots from Young Thug and
Popcaan and you probably won’t dance to it—but anything’s possible. (June 4)